J&R partners with SFSD for new internet tower

OSBURN — They say cooperation is the key to success and opportunities for cooperation can sometimes appear in the strangest of places — perhaps no two stranger bedfellows exist than J&R Electronics and the South Fork Sewer District.

Recently, the SFSD board voted in favor of funding $10,000 of a new multi-point microwave repeater tower that will be utilized by J&R to provide internet service to the residents of Osburn.

The tower will be treated as a co-location for both J&R and SFSD, and is already up and serving customers on the west end of town at the SFSD building in Osburn.

J&R Electronics is an internet provider that, over the past few years, has been building up quite the Silver Valley clientele as they’ve moved from community to community, setting up towers that allow them to reach almost all of the residents within each incorporated city’s limits.

Unlike many other providers in the area, J&R leases commercial grade fiber backbone to supply their sites, but doesn’t use cable lines or DSL for getting their service to the customer — they use microwave technology to go the last mile.

Microwave internet uses equipment similar in size and shape to a satellite dish, but because the fixed microwave is terrestrial-based and not a satellite in space, the speeds are faster and more stable.

The partnership between the two entities is one born of necessity on both sides, as J&R was struggling to find places in Osburn to help them complete their coverage of the city — and for the SFSD, who requires a high-speed, stable and consistent internet connection in order to operate.

With the exception of the city of Smelterville, SFSD services all of the other communities in the Silver Valley from Kingston to Mullan.

In exchange for the location and partial funding of the tower, as part of their fiber backbone, J&R is also supplying SFSD with a direct fiber line that will allow the sewer district to maintain a strong and stable connection.

“We had really poor internet before — to the point where we couldn’t run our business,” said SFSD Manager Pete Stayton. “We bill quarterly, so once a quarter we have a lot of stuff going out and a lot coming in, and if an outage happened during one of those times (which it did) we basically couldn’t operate our business. So this has really worked out tremendously for us.”

The $10,000 from the SFSD covered roughly 50% of the costs for the tower structure (prices on materials still being higher than their historic averages), and required board approval from the SFSD’s five-person board.

According to Ian Caldwell, J&R Electronics vice president, Osburn has been one of the tougher nuts to crack in terms of getting service into the entire residential community.

The service that J&R provides requires line of sight, and in most of the communities there are places on the hillsides that allow them to set up a tower or towers to achieve the coverage that they have.

Osburn, being the longest and most narrow of the cities, has made it very difficult to for them to find places where they can set up their towers.

This new tower will work in conjunction with towers placed in the parking lot at Zanetti Bros., adjacent to the MCE Garbage and Recycling offices, and on top of Silver Hills Elementary School to provide a full network for the residents of Osburn.

The partnership between the entities is similar to different co-location partnerships that J&R has formed with other groups — however, this is the first time a group has offered to help cover some of the upfront costs associated with the setup.

Which likely expedited the process for both J&R and SFSD.

“The connection they have now in their office is unlike anything you would get anywhere else,” Caldwell said. “It’s right off of the main feed.”

Danny Alfson with J&R mentioned that the type of connection SFSD now has at a reduced rate would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 per month — which means that this partnership will be saving taxpayers in the long run, while also making one of their main utilities operate more efficiently.

“That estimated cost also was for less than what they’re getting now,” Alfson said.

As part of the agreement, SFSD will receive their service at a reduced price and that price will continue to taper down until it hits $0.

“It’s working out really nicely for us,” Stayton said. “We’ll basically break even after about three and a half years and then we’ll begin saving money.”

J&R likes to operate ‘swift and nimble’ and hopes that once the towers are all outfitted they will be able to begin providing service immediately.

“As long as things stay the course, we could be just a few weeks away from lighting these towers up,” Caldwell said. “It depends on some things like the weather, obviously the holidays are smack in the middle of that, but by mid-January we should be able to start hooking people up.”

“Obviously the partnership is benefitting everyone — it’s a win-win,” said Haley Gosline with SFSD. “I think it’s great when any of us can work together for the greater good.”

If you are interested in service from J&R Electronics, please call 208-687-0700 or email service@jrcda.com.